musings from a transcendent dimension

language

I love to continually return to what I have written on blogs and social media, and revisit my earlier thoughts; preserved through the wonder of this electronic medium…too much of the stuff on Facebook is evanescent and fleeting. I enjoy coming back to these posts again and again to lovingly curate them. They never exist in isolation as mere written words. They are intimately connected to both the sharer, and the friend with whom they are shared…a living witness and testament, as David Whyte might say, to the everlasting power of friendship.

I want to savor the reminder of those who I have met along the way, and leave footprints in the sands of these shoals. A fond reminder of lives we have touched and those who have touched our own lives. A crying out against the painful brevity of life and an affirmation that there are others like us out there in the ether. They are like living and breathing paintings writ on a digitized easel. Their colors are iridescent; wild in their longingness for life. I constantly and lovingly edit them…invited by their energetic presence to further endow them with artistic meaning. I burn with all-consuming fire to elaborate on them – to deepen their original meaning and intent. These words are constantly evolving, both through conscious attention, and also through their mysterious power to grow in spiritual strength over time. The greatest and most rewarding part of this process is the vital interchange of ideas with others, who are not really others, but ourselves disguised. But I do not want to stop there.

No…I want to use the ideas I gather from being in this wondrous forum as a catalyst for interesting life adventures both far and wide. To get away from the keyboard, and give those dew speckled begonias some love. To get out in the dirt and muck in the middle of a rainstorm, and give appreciation to the universe for the mindboggling totality of it all. To climb a colossal redwood tree in the middle of a thunderstorm and howl joyously out into the void, like the great John Muir did. To peer into the endless ineffability that it is a spider’s web. To bend down and gently kiss the iris, nature’s most underappreciated flower. To all my virtual and real world friends, thanks for sharing these moments of spirit and joy with me. You make this journey we call life even more worthwhile.

Yes, I love words. I love how they look on the page. How they roll trippingly off the tongue. Sometimes, a single word blindsides me with such an unexpected beauty that I could get lost in it for days. Just fall headlong into the resplendent singularity that is language, and immerse myself in the luminous wonder that lies therein. Words are imbued with a life of their own. They grow and they change like all other life forms. They are not mere lifeless things.The minute that they are written down, they start to evolve – if you lovingly nurture them, and treat them with the sacredness that is their due. They contain a leftover flame from the dawn of creation. They throb with a singular pulse and are alive with untold power. Subtle alterations in words written down on page take place, a product of a strange symbiosis between the march of time, and the shaping of spiritual forces.

Unfortunately, in today’s society, linguistic appreciation is slowly fading away. That is a damn shame. My literary heroes are those who can fearlessly perform an alchemy of sorts with the amulet of language. Words most definitely are splendorous things. However, we must never forget that their true purpose is that of signposts extending a loving invitation to come back to where it is that we really belong. Words can be suffused with a taste of the transcendent if they are written in a state of presence. They serve this purpose when they are used in poetry and in books of profound spiritual wisdom. Used by writers in this way, they carry the powerful fragrance of what lies beyond this dimension – a whiff of the infinite mystery of creation. They bring a vibrancy that comes from the realm of the of what lies beyoned the material dimension. There are effulgent realities beyond this one, and words can be the gateway.

Because you know, this world, with its myriad cares and problems, is not our true home. The true function of words is to lead us back to the transcendent dimension. To be in the world, and not of it. They are beautiful and magnificent creatures…ineffable emissaries from another realm. Everyone should be able to see the heart-aching majesty in them and realize why language was invented in the first place. And that is…it was created to transcend itself. Before consciousness descended into the universe, language was destined to come into being . But it was always going to be an interim step – to bring us to a place where it was no longer needed. Built in its very creation is its own eventual demise. One day, words will no longer be needed. We will have arrived home. No longer, will we need the primitive tool of language to provide us with a shadowy intimation of the rapturous truth of reality, for we will experience it firsthand. The wondrous truth of existence, which will be revealed when we set language aside, is that we are children of the light. We always have been, and always will be. We will have ascended out of the primordial darkness and long at last remember who we truly are. We will cast aside our need for language and our mortal bodies and array ourselves with celestial garments. We are creatures of unparalleled luminosity. Our long homeward journey will be over.